Development
Producers Avi Arad and Gale Anne Hurd began developing Hulk in 1990, the same year of the airing of the final television film based on the 1970s television series, The Death of the Incredible Hulk. They set the property up at Universal Pictures in 1992. Michael France and Stan Lee were invited into Universal's offices in 1993, with France writing the script. Universal's concept was to have the Hulk battle terrorists, an idea France disliked. John Turman, a Hulk comic book fan, was brought in to write the script in 1994, getting Lee's approval. Heavily influenced by the Tales to Astonish issues, Turman wrote ten drafts and pitted the Hulk against General Ross, the military, and the Leader, also including Rick Jones and the atomic explosion origin from the comics along with Brian Banner as the explanation for Bruce's inner anger. Universal had mixed feelings over Turman's script, but future screenwriters would use many elements.
Hurd brought her husband Jonathan Hensleigh as co-producer the following year, and Universal hired Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create the Hulk with CGI. Universal was courting France once more to write the screenplay but changed when Joe Johnston became the director in April 1997. The studio wanted Hensleigh to rewrite the script due to his successful results on Johnston's Jumanji (1995). Universal fired France before he wrote a single page, but gave him a buy-off. Johnston dropped out of directing in July 1997 in favor of October Sky (1999), and Hensleigh convinced Universal to make the Hulk his directing debut. Universal brought Turman back a second time to write two more drafts. Zak Penn then rewrote it. His script featured a fight between the Hulk and a school of sharks, and two scenes he eventually used for the 2008 film: Banner realizing he cannot have sex, and triggering a transformation by falling out of a helicopter. Hensleigh rewrote from scratch, coming up with a brand new storyline featuring Bruce Banner, who, before the accident which turns him into the Hulk, experiments with gamma-irradiated insect DNA on three convicts, transforming them into "insect men" that cause havoc.
Filming was to start in December 1997 in Arizona for a mid 1999 release, but filming was pushed back for four months. Hensleigh subsequently rewrote the script with J. J. Abrams. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were also brought on board to rewrite, with Hensleigh still attached as director. In October 1997, Hulk had entered pre-production with the creation of prosthetic makeup and computer animation already underway. Gregory Sporleder was cast as "Novak", Banner's archenemy, while Lynn Williams was cast as a convict who transforms into a combination of human, ant, and beetle. In March 1998, Universal put Hulk on hiatus due to its escalating $100 million budget and worries of Hensleigh directing his first film. Twenty million dollars was already spent on script development, computer animation, and prosthetics work. Hensleigh immediately went to rewrite the script to reduce the budget.
Hensleigh found the rewriting process too complicated and resigned, saying he "wasted nine months in pre-production". It took another eight months for France to convince Universal and the producers to let him try to write a script for the third time. France claimed, "Someone within the Universal hierarchy wasn't sure if this was a science fiction adventure, or a comedy, and I kept getting directions to write both. I think that at some point when I wasn't in the room, there may have been discussions about turning it into a Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler movie." France was writing the script on the fast track from July to September 1999. Filming for Hulk was to start in April 2000.
France stated his vision of the film was different from the other drafts, which was based on Bruce Banner in his "amiable, nerdy genius" incarnation in the 1960s. France cited inspiration from the 1980s Hulk stories, which introduced Brian Banner, Bruce's abusive father who killed his mother. His script had Banner trying to create cells with regenerative capabilities to convince himself that he is not like his father. However, he has anger management issues before the Hulk is born, which makes everything worse. The "Don't make me angry..." line from the 1970s television series became the dialogue that Banner's father would say before beating his son. Elements such as the "Gammasphere", Bruce and Betty's tragic romance, and the black ops made it to the final film. France turned in his final drafts in late 1999 to January 2000.
Michael Tolkin and David Hayter rewrote the script even after the producers' positive response to France's script. Tolkin was brought in January 2000, and Universal brought Hayter in September. Hayter's draft features the Leader, Zzzax, and Absorbing Man as the villains, who are depicted as Banner's colleagues and get caught in the same accident that creates the Hulk. Director Ang Lee and his producing partner James Schamus became involved with the film on January 20, 2001. Lee chose not to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and instead began work on the film. He was dissatisfied with Hayter's script and commissioned Schamus for a rewrite, merging Banner's father with the Absorbing Man. Lee cited influences from King Kong, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Beauty and the Beast, Faust, and Greek mythology to interpret the story. Schamus said he had found the storyline that introduced Brian Banner, allowing Lee to write a drama that again explored father-son themes. Director Ang Lee originally wanted the Hulk to be completely naked, but to maintain a PG-13 rating, he couldn't commit to showing nudity throughout the film, and instead had the Hulk's underwear rip during the fight with the three super dogs.
Schamus was still rewriting the script in October 2001. In early 2002, as filming was underway, France read all the scripts for the Writers Guild of America to determine who would get final credit. France criticized Schamus and Hayter for claiming they were aiming to make Banner a more in-depth character, saddened that they had denigrated their work in interviews. Schamus elected to get solo credit. France said, "James Schamus did a significant amount of work on the screenplay. For example, he brought in the Hulk dogs from the comics, and he made the decision to use Banner's father as a real character in the present. But he used quite a lot of elements from John Turman's scripts and quite a lot from mine, and that's why we were credited." France, Turman, and Schamus received final credit. In December 2001, a theatrical release date for June 20, 2003, was announced, with the title of The Hulk. Schamus admitted that he was worried about making the film after seeing Spider-Man (2002).
